The Fondation Le Corbusier was deeply saddened to learn of the passing of Balkrishna Vithaldas Doshi. In addition to the internationally renowned architect, we would like to pay tribute to the memory of Le Corbusier’s former collaborator.
After a decisive meeting with Le Corbusier at the CIAM congress in Hoddeson in 1951, Doshi worked for four years in Paris, in the studio at 35 rue de Sèvres, before moving to India in 1955, where he oversaw the construction of Chandigarh and numerous projects in Ahmedabad, including Villa Sarabhai, Villa Shodhan and Palais des Filateurs. In the same year, he founded his agency and the Vastu Shilpa Foundation, dedicated to environmental issues.
Doshi’s architecture combines modernity and tradition, Indianity and internationalism, universalism and local culture. Considered the greatest Indian architect of the 20th century, he is also a precursor of ecological construction.
Doshi and Le Corbusier shared the same taste for the vernacular, and even more for Nature, the great inspiration for ecological and humane living.
« I owe this prestigious prize to my guru, Le Corbusier. His teachings led me to question identity and compelled me to discover new regionally adopted contemporary expression for a sustainable holistic habitat. »
